Jan. 21, 2013. In an interesting connection to the High Country, one of the starting quarterbacks to play in Super Bowl XLVII on Feb. 3 once squared off against Appalachian State in one of the program’s most significant games.

No, Chad Henne is not playing in the Super Bowl. (For those who missed it, Henne was the quarterback of a certain Michigan team back in 2007).

But Joe Flacco, starting quarterback of the Baltimore Ravens, was the last quarterback the 2007 Appalachian State Mountaineers football team had to go through to complete their three-peat in a game on Dec. 14, 2007.

Flacco, at that time the star quarterback of the Delaware Fightin Blue Hens, went 23 for 48 in that game for 334 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions. But his Blue Hens were embarrassed on that unseasonably warm December evening at Finley Stadium in Chattanooga.

The Mountaineers never even really let Delaware get their foot in the door on their way to their third straight national championship, routing the Blue Hens by a score of 49 to 21.

Lead by the superior rushing of Kevin Richardson and Armanti Edwards, combined with Edwards putting up 198 yards in the air, the Mountaineers were up 28-7 at the half and never looked back.

But the past is the past, and despite ASU breaking Flacco’s heart a little more than five years ago, Delaware’s former star is now the talk of the sports world and could be called a Super Bowl Champion in a couple of weeks.

That is, if the San Francisco 49ers read-option offense and high-powered defense doesn’t do the same thing to Flacco that Armanti and the Mountaineers did all those years ago.

The Super Bowl is set to kick off at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 3, and will be televised nationally on CBS. For more information, visit superbowl.com.